I Will Dress You In Silver
by Lamia of the Dark
Summary: For the HPFC Character Playlist challenge. A collection of 20 unrelated song-inspired oneshots and drabbles. Aftersex moments between our favorite Dark couple. (The M rating is mostly for sexual references/language in the first few chapters.)
1. Like an Insect

**DISCLAIMER: Harry Potter belongs to JK Rowling.**

**A/N: Every chapter in this collection will be an unrelated oneshot. Song influence will be noted at the end of each chapter.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Like an Insect)<p>

"Were you pleased?" he asks, afterward.

She is quick to offer praise, but what she _doesn't_ do is tell him what he wants to know - namely, whether she got off. He suspects that she did not, and his suspicion is confirmed when her litany of compliments fails to include anything about her own pleasure.

Once it seems that she is finished speaking, he says, "But did you come?"

She won't lie to him; she knows he despises lies. Neither does she want to tell him the truth. Her silence is answer enough.

As eager as she was, she should have been easy to please... and seeing as he'd failed at it, then how bad at sex _was_ he? Had all of his previous bed partners been just as ill-pleased and simply afraid to upset him by admitting so?

Such disturbing thoughts as these keep him awake long after he sends his current lover away.

~1/20~

Inspiration for this chapter is "Sehnsucht" by Rammstein. The full line from which the chapter title is derived is _Sehnsucht versteckt sich wie ein Insekt._ (Longing stings like an insect.)


	2. I Stand Not Crawling

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(I Stand Not Crawling)<p>

Afterward, when she is asleep in his arms, exhausted both physically and emotionally... this is the time - the _only_ time - that he can be gentle with her. He wipes away her tears, then presses a kiss to the hollow of her throat, allowing his lips to linger against the soft skin there.

He holds her tenderly for a few moments before lifting his wand from the nightstand and using spells to clean the sweat and other fluids from both of their bodies. He does not erase the signs of his violence from her skin. He will need the reminder later.

Before he settles down for the night, he wakes her and tells her to sleep on the floor, as is her place. She complies without protest.

~2/20~

Inspiration for this chapter is "Not Falling" by Mudvayne. (Yes, it's a bit of stretch to take the meaning as not falling in love, but...)


	3. Your Lips Are Venomous

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Your Lips Are Venomous)<p>

She reaches out for him but stops before her fingers can make contact with his skin, and draws her hand back. She wants nothing more than to snuggle up to him, to share body heat during the night, to feel safe...

But there is no safety in his arms. He is temperamental at best, intentionally cruel at worst. He rarely allows her to kiss him on the mouth and he does not tolerate cuddling.

_He_ _treats_ _that damn snake better than he treats me_, she muses bitterly to herself as she gets up from the bed. She doesn't know why he insists that she stay afterwards, when he doesn't care for the closeness of another body pressed against his while he sleeps. Besides that, he's a blanket-hog and she is tired of lying awake shivering beside him night after night.

After she cleans herself up and gets dressed, she curls up on the rug in front the fire instead of returning to the bed. And if he doesn't like it, too bad. She spent too many years in Azkaban to willingly suffer any more nights of not being able to get warm.

~3/20~

_ I want to hold you but I'd better not touch._  
><em>I want to kiss you but your lips are venomous poison. <em>-Groove Coverage, "Poison"


	4. A Tired Song Keeps Playing

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(A Tired Song Keeps Playing)<p>

He must be building up a tolerance, since - although he is rather exhausted - he does not pass out immediately afterward this time.

She always leaves while he is asleep - most likely under the assumption that he would send her away, were he conscious.

Currently she is lying half on top of him, her body sprawled awkwardly across his, her breath coming in ragged gasps as she tries to pull herself together. After a few long moments, her breathing steadies and she disentangles her body from his. He wants to stop her from leaving but he can't seem to find his voice to tell her to stay or the strength to make a move.

She gets up. He hears a faint clicking sound as she picks up her wand from the nightstand, the soft murmur of her voice as she casts cleaning spells, the whisper of fabric against skin as she dresses herself.

Before she leaves, she comes back to the bed and checks to make sure that he is asleep. He is certain that she must not realize he is actually awake when she leans down and presses a soft kiss to his forehead. She would not dare such a thing were she aware that he is conscious. Pity that she doesn't realize her boldness may be rewarded rather than punished if she were to attempt it. Having no one that he can treat as equal is beginning to get tiresome.

"Goodnight, my lord," she whispers. She says it for herself, he knows, because it isn't truly meant for him to hear.

She straightens up and turns to leave. He almost calls out to her. She lingers in the doorway a moment; he wonders whether she heard the hitch in his breathing just now.

Then she is gone.

~4/20~

_I think about you all the time,  
><em>_But I don't need the same._  
><em>It's lonely where you are.<em>  
><em>Come back down<em>. -Goo Goo Dolls, "Name"


	5. To See if I Can Catch a Dream

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(To See If I Can Catch a Dream)<p>

She starts to get up from the bed, but he stops her with an arm around her waist and pulls her back down to lie against him.

"Stay," he says - as though the command were not rendered redundant by his actions.

As her body relaxes into his, she asks him, "Why?"

He knows she will not disobey him, but that she would dare to question his orders - even in so intimate a setting - angers him.

"Because you're mine, and I told you to," he snaps.

She sighs heavily in response. "Yes, that's why I'm _going_ to stay. But why do you _want_ me to?"

The answer to that question does not come as easily to him... and when he finally speaks, the only thing that he can bring himself to say to her is, "Be quiet and go to sleep."

~5/20~

This chapter is inspired by "She Had The World" by Panic! at the Disco. (There were too many relevant lyrics for me to pick a single section to quote.)


	6. You Will Never Belong To Me

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(You Will Never Belong To Me)<p>

She lies awake beside him, wondering why things turned out this way between them. Perhaps if she had not been so quick to fall into his bed all those years ago, she would be something more than just his mistress now. If she had not been so starved for affection back then, if she had resisted his advances - at least at first... would things be different now? If she had played hard-to-get in the beginning, would she now be standing at his side as his Dark Lady rather than being kept like a shameful secret?

Ah... but the past is already set in place. She can't change the choices made by her younger self. And if she wishes to remain close to him now, if she desires some semblance of affection, then letting herself be used like this is the only option open to her.

~6/20~

_Like a leech I hold on, as if we belong to some precious pure dream_. -Chevelle, "Closure"


	7. Disappointed

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Disappointed)<p>

At first she thinks he is purposely denying her pleasure while taking his own.

She learns that is not the case on the third night she spends in his bed, when - instead of going to sleep immediately afterward - he snuggles up to her, offers her a few perfunctory compliments while scattering light kisses over her shoulders, and then proceeds to blatantly fish for praise. She can't think of anything positive to say which he would not recognize as evasion or an outright lie...

"Bella? Are you asleep?"

_Shit_. She's taken too long to answer and now he's going to be suspicious about her silence. Perhaps she should say something to throw him offtrack?

"Yes," she replies sarcastically. "I'm asleep."

He lets out a snort - sounding half-amused, half-annoyed - and shifts position so that he is holding her more comfortably against him, before inquiring, "Why didn't you just answer my question before?"

Ah, here is an answer she can give truthfully.

"I couldn't think of what to say," she says. "... or how to phrase what I did want to say."

He seems to accept that answer, as he does not speak again immediately, and after a few long moments his breathing begins to even out and his limbs loosen in sleep. Now that his grip on her has slackened somewhat, she can escape if she wants to. But _this_ isn't the part that's bad. He hasn't ever told her to leave afterward, and she enjoys being cuddled, sleeping next to him, waking up beside him in the morning... She just has to decide whether enduring the lackluster sex is worth it for everything else that comes with these encounters.

~7/20~

_Don't you want to hold me, baby?_  
><em>Disappointed, going crazy.<em>

-Serj Tankian, "Sky is Over"


	8. Your Sad Eyes Take and Own Me

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Your Sad Eyes Take and Own Me)<p>

He wakes to the sound of her crying out in her sleep. The sound is not quite a scream, not quite a sob, and entirely disturbing to hear. He does not know whether to wake her or attempt to comfort her while she still sleeps.

Before he has a chance to decide, she startles into wakefulness on her own. Panicking, she scrambles away from him, her mind still half-caught in the events of her dream. In the dim light, he can see tears streaming down her face.

"Nightmare?" he asks, putting a hand to her cheek. His other arm is wrapped firmly around her waist and is the only thing that prevented her from falling off the bed in her earlier panic.

His touch pushes the last remnants of the dream from her mind and she looks down at him. Her tear-blurred gaze missing the worry that shows clearly in his eyes, she looks down to where her hands are splayed upon his chest. Her arms are tensed, elbows locked in a straight position, holding herself as far away from him as his restraining hold on her waist will allow. As she stares, he lifts his hand from her cheek and wraps his fingers around her wrist. He gives a gentle tug, unbalancing her and causing her to fall against his chest.

He waits for her to shift into a more comfortable position from the one she has fallen into, then enfolds her in a tight embrace.

"Go back to sleep," he says.

"I can't," she whispers.

"Of course you can."

"But I don't want to."

Because when she goes back to sleep, the dreams will still be there waiting for her. She thought her nightmare would be over once she was out of that hellish place, but her mind finds its way back there almost every night and it seems she will never truly escape...

"You don't know what it's like," she continues, and her voice is so low that were her mind not fully open to his, he would likely not hear enough of what she is saying to be able to understand it. "Being in that place for so long... and now that I'm out, I still can't get _away."_

"You forget," he says, "that I existed in a nightmarish state myself for nearly as many years." He pauses to let the full implications of that sink in. "And yet when you are with me, I have never dreamed of my memories from that time."

His words, however, do not have the intended effect. Instead of being soothed, she tenses as she realizes that by letting her nightmares send her fleeing from his bed in the middle of the night, she has often condemned him to suffer his own.

~8/20~

Song inspiration for this chapter is "Nocturnal" by Eve 6.


	9. Is Your World Just a Broken Promise?

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Is Your World Just a Broken Promise?)<p>

They are losing the war, she knows.

After his resurrection, the Dark Lord has become more violent, more unstable, more single-minded. She stays at his side anyway. She lets him take out his frustrations on her - encourages him to do so, even.

She knows they are losing the war, and all of his promises about the future are lies. But even if there were a way for her to save herself, she would still choose to stay. Not that there _is_ any way to save herself - she is in too deep. There isn't much left of her "self" that could be saved, either. There is perhaps a single spark of light within her soul, and if it were enough to save either of them, she would still choose him over herself.

~9/20~

Song inspiration for this chapter is "Let It Burn" by Red.


	10. I Need Serenity

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(I Need Serenity)<p>

They keep coming back to each other, although neither of them really take pleasure in the act anymore.

They keep trying to recapture a half-remembered emotion - the sinful joy of slaking a forbidden lust - both forgetting that they burned out on that feeling long ago, before their minds became too broken and their hearts became too twisted to appreciate the emotions that should accompany physical intimacy. The feelings they now harbor for one another are black and poisonous, remaining unvoiced in favor of bland praise.

These encounters leave them feeling scraped hollow, rather than being fulfilled. Yet still they keep trying, scrounging for shards of the past, searching for ghosts of each other within their present selves - looking for a sense of peace which they will never find.

~10/20~

_Where do we go when we just don't know?_  
><em>And how do we relight the flame when it's cold?<em>  
><em>Why do we dream when our thoughts mean nothing?<em>  
><em>And when will we learn to control?<em>

-Godsmack, "Serenity"


	11. Death Wont Hold You As Tight As She Will

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

**WARNINGS: This chapter is more sexual than previous chapters, and contains dub-con elements.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Death Won't Hold You As Tight As She Will)<p>

He is addicted to her.

Before he falls asleep he tells her to stay, because he knows he will want her again when he wakes. She murmurs her assent as she snuggles against him. She lays her head on his chest, over his heart, and is asleep almost immediately. Pure male pride flares in his chest at her state of exhaustion - proof that his lover is well pleased.

He slowly comes back to consciousness from the depths of a long, strange dream. She is still beside him on the bed, as promised. She is laying on her side facing away from him. Earlier she fell asleep cradled in his arms, but now there is not a single point of contact between their bodies. Seeking to remedy this, he slides his arms around her waist and draws her body against his. Damp tangles of hair tickle his face as he nuzzles her shoulder. She must have gotten up sometime while he was asleep to bathe. As his hands begin to roam her body, he notices that she did not bother to put on any clothes after she cleaned herself up.

Her skin is warm under his fingers despite her unclothed state. The texture is smooth and soft, and even though he has already had her this night, he finds himself wanting to touch and kiss every inch of her. He can feel every one of her ribs as he slides his hands along her sides. He presses soft kisses to the back of her neck as his palms close over her breasts.

He knows the exact moment when she awakens. She exhales sharply and her muscles tense. He murmurs her name; not a second later, her body relaxes into his.

"Not that I'm complaining about you touching me," she says, sounding irritated despite this proclamation, "but couldn't you have woken me up first?"

~11/20~

Inspiration for this chapter is "Her Portrait In Black" by Atreyu.

(Yes, I realize the chapter title in the dropdown menu is missing the apostrophe. It was one character too long and I didn't want to choose a different lyric for the chapter title.)


	12. Baby, When I'm Yelling At You

**A/N: Please keep in mind that this is NOT a single coherent story and every chapter takes place in its own separate universe.**

~ I Will Dress You In Silver ~  
>(Baby, When I'm Yelling At You)<p>

"So eager to leave me..." he comments dryly as she slips from the bed afterward.

"No, my lord, no," she protests. "I don't want to-"

"Then get back in bed."

She hesitates to follow the order. He notes her conflicted expression but does not allow it to sway him. He glares at her and repeats the command. Yet still she hesitates.

"What are you waiting for?" he snaps, opening his arms to her in an impatient gesture.

It is this action more than anything that undoes her. She sighs as she crawls back into bed beside him. He grins and wraps her in a possessive embrace.

"Fine," she murmurs, snuggling against him. "You win. But if I piss the bed, it is _entirely_ your fault."

~12/20~

This one is inspired by the song "Not Your Fault" by AWOLNATION.


End file.
